La Chispa Founding Recognition Rules

Published October 1, 2026 · Retaz LLC · Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA
Version 3. Supersedes Version 2 (May 20, 2026, as amended), from publication.

One-time founding event of the Retaz Curator Association

Preamble

La Chispa is a one-time founding event of the Retaz Curator Association. During a single 31-day window in late 2026, the curator whose playlist receives the most valid member hearts in the world is recognized as the La Chispa Global Champion and invited to negotiate a Global Ambassador role with Retaz LLC.

This is the only time Retaz will hold an event at this scale or with this economic structure. La Chispa happens once. Future Retaz recognition events will exist and will be substantively different.

The consumer-facing words "community" and "competition" are used on marketing surfaces; these Rules use "Association" and "recognition" so the structural intent is unambiguous. Both describe the same thing: a global community of playlist curators, organized as the Retaz Curator Association, celebrating its inaugural Global Champion.

Welcome to the founding.

Section 1. The Event

1.1 Campaign window. The campaign opens October 17, 2026 at 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-4; 2026-10-17T04:00:00Z) and closes at the end of November 16, 2026, 23:59:59 US Eastern Time (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-5; 2026-11-17T04:59:59Z): 31 inclusive calendar dates. All times in these Rules are US Eastern Time (America/New_York), the clock at Retaz LLC's principal place of business in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Where a UTC instant is given it is an equivalent, not the governing clock. Clocks in the Eastern zone move from daylight time to standard time on November 1, 2026, inside the window, so the window is 745 hours long and its two ends carry different UTC offsets.

1.2 Tiers open October 15; the pre-window. Paid membership at the campaign price, and the free tier, open on October 15, 2026 at 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-10-15T04:00:00Z), two days before the campaign opens. October 15 and 16 are a signup and onboarding period only. Under Section 3.1, a playlist first created on Retaz during the pre-window is not an eligible entry, and that limitation is disclosed at purchase and at publication.

1.3 Founders Champions, October 14. On October 14, 2026, the day the beta ends, Retaz LLC announces its Founders Champions, up to ten beta members recognized for exceptional pre-launch contribution. Selection is at the discretion of the Co-Founders, Sarah and Matt Pollock, who choose the members who most helped build this world. It is a recognition grant, deliberately not a contest outcome and not governed by these Rules. The Founders Champions recognition is distinct from the La Chispa Global Champion in selection, window, economics and announcement date, and its criteria are set by the Co-Founders outside these Rules.

1.4 Subscriber count. The Retaz app shows a running count of subscribers: Founders (Section 2.7) and members who hold a paid membership, among the members who joined Retaz on or after August 1, 2026 at 20:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-08-02T00:00:00Z, the start of August 2 in UTC). Free-tier members are not counted. The count is informational only. It is not a count of hearts, entries or eligible playlists, and it determines nothing under these Rules. It does not show the Founders Champions or name any member.

1.5 Vote-immutability snapshot. Hearts become immutable at November 17, 2026, 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-11-17T05:00:00Z), one second after the close. A heart cast after that instant does not count toward La Chispa, and no heart cast before that instant may be withdrawn after it.

1.6 Final capture and certification. Provisional Country Champions are pre-assessed from about November 9, 2026, with a re-check at the close for late movement. The final tally used for Section 5 is captured at the snapshot of Section 1.5, November 17, 2026, 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-11-17T05:00:00Z), and certified under the independent-certification procedure named in Section 12. It is the state of the hearts at that instant; nothing recorded after it changes the final tally (Section 4.8(e)).

1.7 Global Champion announcement, December 1. The Global Champion is announced on December 1, 2026 at 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-12-01T05:00:00Z), 15 days after the close. December 1 is the first day of the Retaz fiscal year and anchors the FY27 Global Champion cycle.

1.8 Why two recognitions. The Founders Champions recognize contribution before La Chispa, at the Co-Founders' discretion. The Global Champion recognizes member-driven engagement during La Chispa, by peer voting. Keeping them apart preserves the integrity of both.

Section 2. Eligible Participants

2.1 General eligibility. Subject to this Section and to the Section 7 jurisdictional exclusions, members of the Retaz Curator Association may take part as voters and as candidate curators only as subscribers. A subscriber is a member with an active membership entitlement, as in Section 4.1: a paid membership, or a membership held without payment, such as a Founder's (Section 2.7). A member who is not a subscriber cannot take part in La Chispa.

2.2 No join-date carve-out. Members are eligible regardless of when they joined. Beta members and later joiners stand on equal footing; the leveling element is the in-window creation requirement in Section 3, not join date.

2.3 Age. A participant must be at least 18 as of October 17, 2026. Every Retaz account is 18 or older under Retaz's product rules. Age and residence are self-declared; Retaz does not verify identity and does not claim to. Where the law of the Global Champion's country does not yet let them sign the Retaz Global Ambassador Agreement or receive the cash payment of Section 6.10, Retaz LLC still extends the invitation of Section 6.2 on December 1, 2026, as Section 6.12 requires; the Agreement is signed, and the payment is made, once that law allows it. The recognition and the rest of the Global Champion Award are not affected.

2.4 Good standing. The account must not be suspended, restricted, or under unresolved investigation for a violation of the Terms of Use, the Member Rights Charter or the Community Guidelines at any time during the window.

2.5 No voting floor for candidacy. There is no minimum number of hearts a candidate must have cast, and no cross-border requirement of any kind.

2.6 Related-party exclusions. The following are not eligible to be the Global Champion, and their playlists are not eligible for any La Chispa recognition: Matt Pollock and Sarah Pollock; immediate family of either Co-Founder (spouse, children, parents, siblings, and in-laws of equivalent degree); employees of Retaz LLC; paid advisors to Retaz LLC; contractors of Retaz LLC engaged during the window; and any person with a financial or governance relationship with Retaz LLC outside standard Association membership. These are the only categorical exclusions beyond Section 7.

2.7 Eligibility for recognition. A candidate playlist is eligible for the Country Ambassador recognition (Section 6.8) or the Global Champion recognition (Section 5) only if it meets Sections 3.1 to 3.6 and, at the snapshot of Section 1.5, its Curator is a subscriber (Section 2.1) and holds either the Curator badge or, where the same criteria were met between August 2 and November 16, 2026 by a member who signed up before October 15, 2026, 00:00 US Eastern, the Founding Curator badge. Either badge is earned on eleven qualifying actions: publish at least one playlist meeting Section 3.3 and cast at least one heart, then accumulate nine more actions from further publications and hearts cast, in any country. The Curator must also have published at least one playlist inside the window.

A Founder, meaning a member who signed up to Retaz before October 15, 2026 at 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-10-15T04:00:00Z) and is enrolled in the Founders program, holds membership free for 12 months from signup, and so may cast hearts and earn the badge without paying. There is no free route to recognition: a member who is not a subscriber cannot be recognized. This Section restricts eligibility for the two recognitions only; it does not restrict who may publish an in-window playlist.

2.8 Own work only. A candidate playlist is the Curator's own work, declared as such at publication. A playlist declared as adopted from another person (Section 3.6) is never a candidate playlist.

2.9 Press years. Retaz LLC may give a journalist or a creator, by name, one year of membership without payment (a "press year"), redeemed once with a single-use code at retaz.fm. A press year is a membership held without payment under Section 2.1, so its holder is a subscriber: they may cast hearts and take part as a candidate Curator on the same terms as any other subscriber. A press year is not, by itself, a financial relationship with Retaz LLC under Section 2.6, and it is never given in exchange for hearts. After the close, Retaz LLC publishes how many press years were redeemed.

Section 3. Eligible Playlists

3.1 First creation inside the window. A playlist is eligible only if it was first created on Retaz, in any visibility (public, friends or private), inside the campaign window of Section 1.1. In particular:

• A playlist first created on Retaz at or before 23:59:59 US Eastern Time on October 16, 2026 is not eligible, even if every heart it receives is cast in the window. This includes playlists created during the October 15 to 16 pre-window (Section 1.2).
• A playlist first created on Retaz at or after 00:00:00 US Eastern Time on November 17, 2026 is not eligible.
• Editing an in-window playlist during the window, within the limits of Section 3.4, keeps it eligible; the first creation is what counts.
• A playlist previously created on Retaz before the window, whether or not it was later deleted, does not become eligible by being re-created, duplicated or republished inside the window (Section 9.5).
• The Curator's own work first brought to Retaz inside the window, including a playlist the Curator imports from another service where it was the Curator's own, is eligible regardless of when it was made elsewhere.

3.2 Content compliance. An eligible playlist complies with the Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, the Member Rights Charter, the Community Guidelines and Retaz's platform red lines. Not eligible, and subject to removal: harassment, threats, doxxing or targeted abuse; material infringing intellectual property rights; child sexual abuse material; content promoting violence, self-harm, terrorism or hatred against protected groups; content unlawful where the Curator or the Association is located. Reports go to Section 10. A playlist under moderation review cannot receive hearts while the review lasts. A playlist under review at the snapshot of Section 1.5 is left out of the final capture; if the review then clears it, Retaz LLC reinstates it at certification on the valid hearts it held at the snapshot.

3.3 Minimum length. At least four unique tracks at the close. Duplicates do not count.

3.4 Public visibility. Public, visible to other members, for substantially the whole window. A playlist kept private, friends-only or deleted for more than a brief period may be disqualified at Retaz LLC's good-faith discretion. During the window, an in-window playlist that is public stays public until the close; no song may be removed from it, and a song may be added only within one hour of the playlist's creation. The Curator may reorder its songs and edit its title and description at any time. From the snapshot of Section 1.5 until the final tally of Section 1.6 has been captured, which is done just after the snapshot, no member may change the visibility of an in-window playlist, add a song to it or remove a song from it, or delete it.

3.5 Every in-window playlist is a candidate. A member may publish any number of in-window playlists, and every one that meets Sections 3.1 to 3.6 is a candidate and may receive hearts. There is no designation step and no playlist is preferred over another. A Curator holding both the first and second position in a country is recognized once, on the first; the second position confers nothing on anyone.

3.6 Authorship declaration. Every playlist on Retaz is made by a person, not a machine. At publication the Curator declares either that they made the playlist themselves, or that they adopted it from another person, whom they credit. An adopted playlist may be published, may receive hearts, and its hearts are shown on the playlist, rank it within a Scene and count toward its Curator's profile total, but it never competes: it is not a candidate on the country standings, the global standings or in La Chispa. A playlist declared as own work that is found on good-faith review to be another person's work is disqualified under Section 9.5.

Section 4. Hearts

4.1 One heart per member per playlist, at a time. A member with an active membership entitlement, whatever its term, may give any eligible playlist one heart at a time. There is no daily limit and no limit on how many different playlists a member may heart. A member who withdraws a heart under Section 4.6 may heart the same playlist once more; if that second heart is also withdrawn, the member may not heart that playlist again. To bound scripted casting, a member may cast at most one hundred new hearts per rolling hour; that bound never limits the total a member may cast across the window and never applies to withdrawals.

4.2 One person, one vote. Hearts are equal in weight. No premium-tier weighting, no creator weighting, no super-heart, no paid amplification.

4.3 No country-balance multiplier. Hearts are counted one person, one vote, globally. Any future calibration belongs to a future event and its own rules.

4.4 Valid hearts, defined once. Every quantity these Rules derive from hearts, whether a count, a ranking or a timestamp, is computed from valid hearts only, except the evidence record described in Section 5.2. A heart is valid if, and only if, all of the following hold:

• (a) it was cast inside the campaign window of Section 1.1 (Section 4.5);
• (b) it was not cast by the Curator on the Curator's own playlist (Section 4.7);
• (c) it was not withdrawn under Section 4.6;
• (d) it was not discounted under Section 9 (manipulation, disqualification or duplicate accounts);
• (e) it was not struck under Section 4.8; and
• (f) the account of the member who cast it had not been deleted, by the member or by Retaz LLC, before the snapshot of Section 1.5.

Sections 5 and 6 inherit this definition and carry no separate one. A heart that is not valid still exists in the record (Section 4.9); it simply does not count.

4.5 In-window hearts only. A heart counts only if cast during the window.

4.6 Withdrawal within 24 hours. A member may withdraw a heart within 24 hours of casting it. After 24 hours it can no longer be withdrawn, and it leaves the tally only under Section 4.4(d) to (f). A withdrawn heart never counts. Withdrawal is member-initiated, and Section 4.1 says when a withdrawn heart may be given again. No heart cast before the snapshot of Section 1.5 may be withdrawn after it. Retaz LLC may briefly pause the casting and withdrawal of hearts to protect the tally during an incident; hearts already recorded are unaffected, and the 24-hour period of this Section keeps running during a pause.

4.7 Self-recusal. A Curator may not heart their own playlist. Such hearts are void.

4.8 Struck hearts.

• (a) A heart cast inside a paid membership term that the payment provider later reverses (refund, chargeback or other reversal) is struck and does not count for anything: not for a count, a ranking, or the evidence record of Section 5.2.
• (b) The strike reaches only the reversed term. A member who reverses one term and pays for a later term keeps every heart cast in the later term.
• (c) A heart cast while the member held access without a payment to reverse (the Founders enrollment, a referral year, an earned year, a complimentary period, early access) is unaffected, subject to (h). Where (a) and (c) both apply to one heart, (c) prevails: a heart cast inside a Founder's free membership (Section 2.7), or before the tiers-open of October 15, 2026 at 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-10-15T04:00:00Z) while early access was free for every member, is not struck by the reversal of a paid term that overlaps it.
• (d) A strike is administrative, not a withdrawal, and is not a disqualification of the Curator whose playlist received the heart.
• (e) Only the state at the snapshot counts. A reversal, or the undoing of a reversal under (f), recorded after the snapshot of Section 1.5 does not change the final tally of Section 1.6.
• (f) A reversal that is itself undone. Where the payment provider reverses a refund or other reversal (for example, Apple's reversal of a refund it had granted), the term is restored and the hearts cast inside it count again, automatically, if the undoing is recorded before the snapshot.
• (g) A partial refund reverses the whole term. A refund of part of a paid term (a prorated refund) is a reversal of that entire term for the purposes of this Section.
• (h) Test access. The test access that the app stores provide for review and testing is not access under (c). A heart cast when the member's only access was that test access is struck and does not count, and the end or refund of test access does not by itself strike a heart. Once a purchase made with that test access has been recorded on a member's account, every heart the member casts after that purchase is recorded is also struck and does not count, whatever other access the member holds, including access under (c), and even after that test access has ended or been refunded.

4.9 Audit trail. Every heart is recorded with member identifier, playlist identifier and the absolute instant it was cast, in a ledger that is appended to and never rewritten. A heart that has left the tally under Sections 4.4(f), 4.6, 4.8 or 9 stays in the record. The ledger records the heart's removal from the tally where it was removed, and the basis of any removal decided by Retaz LLC is kept in Retaz LLC's case records (Section 10.5). The record is retained for the life of the recognition and is subject to inspection under Sections 6 and 10.

Section 5. Global Champion Determination

5.1 Two stages, individual playlists. At the capture instant of Section 1.6, Retaz LLC tallies the valid hearts (Section 4.4) on every eligible candidate playlist (Sections 2, 3 and 2.7) and determines the Global Champion in two stages:

• Stage (a), Country Champions. In each participating country, the eligible candidate playlist of a Curator resident in that country that holds the most valid hearts among that country's candidates is the country's winning playlist, and its Curator is that country's Country Champion (the same determination as the Country Ambassador recognition in Section 6.8).
• Stage (b), Global Champion. Among the Country Champions' winning playlists, the one holding the most valid hearts overall is the La Chispa Global Champion playlist, and the Curator who created it is recognized as the La Chispa Global Champion.

Both stages rank individual playlists, never a Curator's combined total. A Curator with several in-window playlists is ranked on each separately, and hearts are never summed across a Curator's playlists. Candidates are partitioned by the Curator's declared country of residence (Section 7.7). Because a global maximum is also the maximum within its own country, the two stages select the same Curator a single global ranking would; the two-stage form exists for public legitimacy and a certifiable audit path, not to change who wins. Live standings shown in the app during and after the campaign are informational. They may include playlists later found ineligible, and after the snapshot of Section 1.5 they may differ from the certified final tally of Section 1.6, which alone governs.

5.2 No tie-break. In the event of a tie on valid hearts, the recognition and its economic terms are split evenly among those tied. There is no tie-break and no random draw at any stage. The record keeps, as evidence only, each playlist's hearts that were not struck under Section 4.8, including a heart later withdrawn under Section 4.6; it decides nothing.

5.3 No Retaz veto. Within these Rules, Retaz LLC has no veto over the Global Champion's identity. Retaz LLC is platform operator and rules administrator, not selector.

5.4 Recognition follows the human. La Chispa recognizes the human Curator who created the winning playlist, not the playlist. A Curator who later removes, alters or replaces the playlist does not lose the recognition.

5.5 Announcement. December 1, 2026 (Section 1.7).

Section 6. The Recognition

The Global Champion's recognition has three parts: a public recognition, the Global Champion Award, and an invitation. A contractual relationship may follow the invitation if both parties choose it.

6.1 Public recognition. The Global Champion is recognized as the La Chispa Global Champion of the Retaz Curator Association, receives a permanent badge on their profile, and is entered in the Retaz Hall of Founding Honor. The recognition follows the Champion for the life of their membership and is non-transferable.

6.2 Invitation to negotiate the Global Ambassador role. With the public recognition, Retaz LLC extends a formal, written, unconditional invitation to negotiate the Global Ambassador role. Retaz LLC commits to good-faith negotiation. By design it is an invitation, not a transfer of economic interest. The Champion may accept, decline, take advice, or do nothing.

6.3 What the negotiation opens with. If the Champion accepts and both parties sign the Retaz Global Ambassador Agreement (Section 12), that agreement provides up to 10% of Retaz LLC's annual EBITDA, calculated from audited financial statements and payable within 90 days of fiscal year end, and up to 10% of the net proceeds available to equity holders at a Sale Event (sale, merger, listing, recapitalization above a defined threshold, or sale of substantially all assets). Local-law ceiling: where the law of the Champion's country of residence caps, restricts or prohibits a payment of this kind, the agreement provides the highest amount that law permits, and where it permits none, none. That the amount varies by country is material information and appears in the announcement itself (Section 6.14).

6.4 What the role is not. Contractual, not equity: not membership of Retaz LLC under West Virginia law and not on the cap table; no statutory member rights anywhere; no governance, voting, approval or veto rights, management staying with the Managing Members; not employment, but an advisor or contractor relationship under US law performed remotely; and non-transferable during the Champion's lifetime except by inheritance, to a legal representative on incapacity, or to a trust or estate vehicle.

6.5 Country-specific finalization. Compensation, tax treatment, payment mechanics and country addenda depend on the Champion's jurisdiction and are settled in the negotiation with US tax counsel and, as needed, counsel in the Champion's jurisdiction. The Champion may engage independent advisors.

6.6 Audit and verification, at Retaz LLC's expense. Retaz LLC engages an independent CPA firm to audit its annual financial statements; the EBITDA share is calculated from those statements. Where the signed agreement gives the Champion the right to have Retaz LLC's figures checked by an independent accountant, Retaz LLC pays for that check once per financial year.

6.7 One time. La Chispa is the inaugural and only recognition event at this economic level. No future event reaches it (Section 11).

6.8 Country Ambassadors. Each participating country's winning Curator under Stage (a) of Section 5.1 is recognized as that country's Country Ambassador: the public honorific of the country's name followed by "Ambassador" (for example, "Canada Ambassador"), a light community-representation role, and 25 years of Retaz membership, stated at the published annual membership price in that country, as the perk of the position. It is expressly not an economic interest: no EBITDA share, no Sale Event share, no equity, no contractor agreement. One per participating country, unless Section 5.2 applies: Curators tied for a country's top place are each recognized as that country's Country Ambassador, and each receives the full 25 years of Retaz membership, which are not divided. The Global Champion is also the winning Curator of their own country and holds that country's Country Ambassador recognition and its 25 years of Retaz membership; unless Section 5.2 applies, no other Curator is named Country Ambassador for that country.

6.9 The grand prize. Awarded to the Global Champion on December 1, 2026, in three parts: (a) the public recognition of 6.1; (b) the Global Champion Award of 6.10; and (c) the invitation of 6.2, extended on the terms of 6.12. The Retaz Global Ambassador Agreement is not part of the grand prize; it is the subject of the negotiation the invitation opens.

6.10 The Global Champion Award. The Global Champion Award is the Champion's country win under Section 6.8, that is, the Country Ambassador recognition and 25 years of Retaz membership, a service Retaz LLC provides, together with a cash payment of USD 2,500. The 25 years are those of the country win and are not granted a second time. The Award is named here before the campaign opens. Apart from the cash payment of USD 2,500, it is never money or a right to receive money, and it is never a share, an interest, a unit or a security. If Section 5.2 applies to the Global Champion, each Curator tied is a Global Champion: each holds their own country win and its 25 years in full, the cash payment of USD 2,500 is divided equally among them, and each receives the invitation of Section 6.2, with the terms of Section 6.3 divided equally among them.

6.11 Stated value of the Global Champion Award. This Section states the value of the Global Champion Award of Section 6.10, which only the Global Champion receives. The membership component is valued at the published annual membership price in the Champion's storefront on October 1, 2026, multiplied by 25: USD 999.75 at the United States price, and the local figure in every country where local law requires one. The cash component is USD 2,500. The Award's stated value is therefore USD 3,499.75 at the United States price. A Country Ambassador who is not the Global Champion receives the 25 years of Retaz membership of Section 6.8, valued in the same way at the published price in that country, and no cash payment. Retaz LLC does not estimate, model or appraise any of these values.

6.12 The invitation is the award. Retaz LLC's obligation under 6.9(c) is to extend the invitation, in writing, without condition, on December 1, 2026. Whatever the Champion does with it, the grand prize has been awarded in full, and the Champion keeps the recognition and the Award in every case.

6.13 The economic terms are not promised. The terms in 6.3 are the terms Retaz LLC opens the negotiation with. They take effect only on a signed agreement, they are subject to the local-law ceiling, and they may never be reached. Retaz LLC will not describe them as the grand prize, or as won, or as awarded, on any surface.

6.14 What entrants are told before entering. Every advertisement of the grand prize, including the announcement of October 1, 2026, states in the advertisement itself and not only by a link: (a) that the grand prize is the recognition, the Global Champion Award and the invitation; (b) the stated value of the Award under 6.11; (c) that the terms in 6.3 require a further agreement to be negotiated and signed, that they may never take effect, and that the amount varies by the Champion's country; (d) that a signed agreement can be ended by Retaz LLC for uncured non-performance, after which no further payments are due; (e) that the hours and duties of the Ambassador role are settled in the negotiation, not by these Rules; and (f) how tax on the grand prize is handled under 6.16. A later, fuller page does not repair an earlier communication, which is why these attach to the announcement itself.

6.15 A closing date for the negotiation. If the Champion accepts, the parties aim to sign within 90 days of December 1, 2026. If nothing is signed by then, either party may end the negotiation in writing; the recognition and the Award are unaffected.

6.16 Retaz LLC pays the tax on the grand prize. Retaz LLC pays, or reimburses the Champion for, every tax, withholding, levy and social contribution charged on the grand prize in the Champion's country of residence for the year of award, grossed up so the Champion is no worse off after tax on the reimbursement itself, and pays the Champion's reasonable cost of independent tax advice on the grand prize up to a limit of USD 2,500. Income under a signed Global Ambassador Agreement is dealt with in that agreement.

Section 7. Excluded Jurisdictions

A member in an excluded jurisdiction remains a full member of the Association for every other purpose. What is withheld is eligibility to be recognized as the Global Champion or a Country Ambassador and to accept the Global Ambassador role. For the duration of the campaign, Retaz also does not offer the app for download in a jurisdiction excluded under this Section, except where a store cannot express the exclusion (Section 7.7).

7.1 Sanctions (permanent). Persons resident in, ordinarily located in, or otherwise subject to comprehensive US, UK, EU or UN sanctions concerning: Iran; the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Cuba; Syria; the Russian Federation; Belarus; and the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, the City of Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Sanctions reach the parts of those regions that are not under the control of the Government of Ukraine; because Retaz records a region and not a line of control, each of those regions is excluded as a whole (Section 7.7).

7.2 Mainland China (permanent for this event). Persons resident in or ordinarily located in mainland China, reflecting prize-promotion and gambling-adjacent regulation, foreign-exchange constraints, and the absence of app distribution. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are not within this exclusion. (Hong Kong is excluded for the campaign under Section 7.3.)

7.3 Campaign-scoped exclusions. Persons resident in, ordinarily located in, or otherwise subject to the laws of the following are not eligible for the duration of the campaign. Each is revisited after the close, and none is a finding that La Chispa is unlawful there.

7.4 Admission of nine states. Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Sweden participate in the campaign and are listed in Schedule A. They were excluded when these Rules were first published on October 1, 2026, and Retaz LLC admitted them by an amendment published before the campaign opens on October 17, 2026 (Section 9.8). Retaz LLC appointed its legal representative under Article 13 of the Digital Services Act on October 2, 2026.

7.5 Participating countries. 136 countries and regions participate, listed in Schedule A. Residents of any place not listed in Schedule A do not participate. The count of exclusions is: 12 under Section 7.1, 1 under Section 7.2, and 51 under Section 7.3. Campaign-scoped exclusions are listed separately from permanent ones so nothing reversible is absorbed into the permanent list.

7.6 Rationale. Sanctions law (OFAC, HM Treasury, EU Council); mainland Chinese prize-promotion and foreign-exchange rules; the Indian Act of 2025; European prize-promotion and licensing regimes; the Brazilian filing regime; Japan's premium ceiling; Northern Ireland's skill requirement; and Iceland's lottery and marketing acts. The v2 reference to Quebec's publicity-contest regime is withdrawn: that regime was repealed effective October 27, 2023. For every participating European state, the structural design (Association framing, recognition rather than prize, one-time character, member-driven selection, and the complete absence of any chance element) is intended to position La Chispa outside prize-promotion characterization. Because casting a heart requires a paid membership (except for a Founder, Section 2.7), this Section was re-examined on a paid-entry, skill-contest basis on September 8 and 21, 2026, and the list above is the result; the nine states named in Section 7.4 were excluded on September 29, 2026 and admitted by the amendment described there.

7.7 Eligibility verification. Eligibility follows the country of residence the Curator has declared in their Retaz account at the close and, where this Section excludes only part of a country, the region they have declared. Nothing else decides it: not where a playlist was made or what location it carries, and not a stay elsewhere. A declaration must be true: Section 7.1 applies to anyone it describes, whatever they have declared, and a false declaration is misrepresentation (below). A Curator who has not declared a country of residence is not eligible. The declared residence is locked from the opening of the campaign, October 17, 2026 at 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-10-17T04:00:00Z), until the final tally of Section 1.6 has been captured; that tally is taken as at the snapshot of Section 1.5, November 17, 2026 at 00:00:00 US Eastern Time (2026-11-17T05:00:00Z), and captured just after that instant. During that time a member cannot change their declared country or region in the app, and removing a declared country or region is a change. A member who genuinely moves during that time asks Retaz LLC to change it, at [email protected], and the change is reviewed under Section 9. During that time, a member who has no declared country may declare one unless they have a playlist created since the opening of the campaign; a member who has no declared region may declare one at any time. A member who has no declared country and has a playlist created since the opening of the campaign asks Retaz LLC, at [email protected], to record the declaration, and it is reviewed under Section 9. Retaz LLC keeps a record of every change to a declared country or region, including a change Retaz LLC makes itself. Where an exclusion is sub-national (the Ukrainian regions in Section 7.1), no app store can express it: the declared region governs, and each of those regions is excluded as a whole. Retaz LLC applies this Section to each candidate when it certifies the result under Section 1.6. Material misrepresentation to circumvent this Section is grounds for disqualification under Section 9.

7.8 Full membership preserved. A member in an excluded jurisdiction is a full Association member; has every Member Right under the Member Rights Charter; may cast hearts where the Retaz platform is lawfully accessible and the member is not otherwise excluded; and may not be recognized as Global Champion or Country Ambassador or accept the Global Ambassador role while subject to the exclusion.

Section 8. What La Chispa Is Not

8.1 Not a lottery. Lotteries are determined by chance. La Chispa is determined by member voting. No element of chance enters the determination at any stage: a tie resolves by an even split, with no tie-break (Section 5.2).

8.2 Not a sweepstakes. There is no chance-based drawing. What is required of everyone who takes part is stated plainly rather than argued around: taking part in La Chispa requires a subscription (Section 2.1). Casting a heart requires an active paid membership, except for a Founder (Section 2.7), who holds membership free for 12 months from signup, and the holder of a press year (Section 2.9); both may cast hearts without paying. Only a subscriber can be recognized; apart from those two memberships held without payment, there is no free route to entry or to recognition. The v2 statement that "the free tier is open without purchase" as a general property of the campaign was withdrawn on August 5, 2026, and the creation route that v2 and the first publication of this Version 3 offered to a member who never pays or votes was removed on October 4, 2026.

8.3 Not gambling. No wager, no consideration paid for a chance outcome, no risk of monetary loss. The recognition is skill-based (curatorial judgment) and member-driven (peer voting).

8.4 Not an investment offering. The Global Champion does not become an equity holder; any economic interest is a contractual right under a separately negotiated agreement, not a security. The recognition in 6.1 rewards a curated work already published during the campaign; it is not consideration for anything the Champion does afterwards, and the Champion invests no capital.

8.5 Not a paid promotion. No payment from any third party (sponsor, label, streaming partner, artist management, advertiser or other) can influence the outcome. Free-tier sponsorship elsewhere in Retaz is unrelated to La Chispa.

8.6 Who runs La Chispa, and who does not. La Chispa is sponsored, promoted and run by Retaz LLC, a West Virginia limited liability company in Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States, which administers these Rules and does not choose the Champion. Apple is not a sponsor of La Chispa and is not involved in it in any manner. Google is not a sponsor of La Chispa and is not involved in it in any manner. Each store's build of the app states this for that store.

Section 9. Anti-Manipulation Rules

The integrity of La Chispa rests on one person, one vote, and honest engagement. The following are prohibited.

9.1 Coordinated manipulation. Vote bots, account farms, coordinated friend campaigns, vote-trading rings, or any coordinated effort to inflate a playlist's heart count. Consequences: disqualification of the playlist, suspension of the Curator and coordinating members, and in aggravated cases permanent removal.

9.2 Paid placement and vote-buying. A candidate Curator paying members anything of value to heart their playlist is automatically disqualified.

9.3 Vote solicitation. Asking another member to heart a playlist is prohibited whether or not anything of value is offered. A candidate Curator, or anyone acting for them, may not ask another member to heart that Curator's playlist on any channel: direct messages, comments on another member's playlist, any other Retaz surface carrying member-to-member text, or off-platform channels where the request is directed at identifiable Retaz members. Prohibited, by example: "Please heart my playlist"; "I hearted yours, heart mine back"; "If you like this, go vote for me in La Chispa"; posting the same request under many playlists; asking someone else to ask on your behalf. Permitted, by example: sharing a link to your own playlist without asking for a heart; saying you have entered; describing or discussing your own curation; replying to a member who contacted you first, without asking for a heart; any commentary on playlists you did not create. Consequence: disqualification of the playlist, decided under Section 9.7 on documented grounds, disputable under Section 10. Enforcement runs on member reports: Retaz LLC does not read members' direct messages to detect solicitation and nothing here claims that it does. This clause binds every candidate Curator whether or not they hold a paid membership.

9.4 Duplicate accounts and the controls that run. One account per natural person. Retaz LLC applies a per-account limit on the rate of voting, requires an active membership entitlement before a heart is recorded, keeps an append-only ledger of every heart, and investigates reports and anomalies, removing accounts and discounting hearts where it finds them. An entitlement obtained by a payment later reversed does not, in the end, support the hearts it permitted (Section 4.8). Retaz LLC does not verify members' identities and does not claim to; country of residence and date of birth are self-declared.

9.5 Self-hearting and circumvention. A Curator hearting their own playlist (Section 4.7); republishing a playlist first created on Retaz before the window as if it were new (Section 3.1); or declaring another person's playlist as own work to compete or to earn a badge (Section 3.6). Each results in disqualification.

9.6 Co-Founder and related-party coordination. Coordination, instruction or influence by any person listed in Section 2.6 to advantage a candidate is prohibited; detected coordination disqualifies the playlist, is documented under Retaz LLC's conflict-of-interest framework, and goes to counsel review.

9.7 Retaz LLC's review rights. Retaz LLC may review, investigate and disqualify suspected violations during and after the window, in good faith and on documented grounds. Disputed outcomes go to Section 10.

9.8 No retroactive rule changes. Retaz LLC will not change the substantive rules during the window. Clarifications, enforcement and bug fixes are not rule changes. Every substantive amendment, including everything in this Version 3, is published before the campaign opens.

Section 10. Dispute Resolution

10.1 Submitting a dispute. A member who believes these Rules were violated, or that a Retaz LLC decision is wrong, may submit a dispute through the in-app reporting flow or by email to [email protected].

10.2 Co-Founder review. Sarah Pollock and Matt Pollock review disputes within seven days, may consult counsel and independent advisors, and may extend complex investigations with notice.

10.3 Counsel review. Contested decisions are escalated to Retaz LLC's US counsel or to international counsel as applicable.

10.4 Final authority; rights preserved. Final authority under these Rules rests with Retaz LLC. This does not displace the Champion's audit rights under Section 6.6, a member's statutory consumer-protection rights, or a member's right to refer a dispute to a competent regulator or court where the law so provides. Retaz LLC engages with regulators and courts in good faith.

10.5 Documentation. Every dispute, response, review and disposition is retained under Retaz LLC's records-retention policies.

Section 11. Future Recognition Events

11.1 La Chispa is one time and will not be repeated.

11.2 Future events exist and differ. Retaz LLC expects to run other recognition events (standalone Country Champion competitions, Genre Champions, regional and time-bounded campaigns), each governed by its own rules published in advance. No future event includes the up-to-10% EBITDA and Sale Event structure; future events may include in-kind recognition, modest prizes consistent with ordinary promotional practice, or partner-sponsored prizes.

11.3 Why one time matters. It preserves the founding-event characterization and grounds the Global Ambassador's economic terms as a one-time founding decision rather than a recurring prize.

11.4 Founding Curator designation. Retaz LLC separately operates a permanent identity recognition for members who signed up before October 15, 2026, 00:00 US Eastern, and meet defined contribution thresholds during the founding window, August 2 to November 16, 2026. A member who signs up on or after October 15, 2026, and any member who meets those thresholds only after November 16, 2026, earns the standard Curator badge for the same actions. It is independent of La Chispa candidacy or outcome.

Section 12. Companion Documents

• Schedule A: the 136 participating countries and regions (Section 7.5).
• Retaz Member Rights Charter.
• Retaz Global Ambassador Agreement Template, made available to the Champion at the December 1, 2026 announcement.
• Retaz Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines.
• Independent certification procedure for the Section 5 determination.

Governing language. These Rules are written in English. So that every member can read them in their own language, Retaz LLC may publish translations; a translation is provided for convenience only. If a translation differs from the English text, or a question arises about what these Rules mean, the English text governs. Nothing in this paragraph limits a right that the law of a member's country of residence gives them.

Closing

La Chispa is a single moment of recognition for the curators who help launch the Retaz Curator Association into the world. It happens once. These Rules are written so the terms are clear, the recognition is real, and the relationship after it is documented.

Welcome to the founding.

Schedule A. Participating countries and regions (Section 7.5)

The following 136 countries and regions participate in La Chispa.

See the map: Where La Chispa runs

1. Albania
2. Angola
3. Anguilla
4. Antigua and Barbuda
5. Armenia
6. Aruba
7. Australia
8. Azerbaijan
9. Bahamas
10. Barbados
11. Belize
12. Benin
13. Bermuda
14. Bhutan
15. Bolivia
16. Bosnia and Herzegovina
17. Botswana
18. British Virgin Islands
19. Brunei
20. Burkina Faso
21. Cabo Verde
22. Cambodia
23. Cameroon
24. Canada
25. Cayman Islands
26. Chad
27. Comoros
28. Costa Rica
29. Cyprus
30. Côte d'Ivoire
31. Democratic Republic of the Congo
32. Denmark
33. Djibouti
34. Dominica
35. Dominican Republic
36. Ecuador
37. El Salvador
38. Eritrea
39. Estonia
40. Eswatini
41. Fiji
42. Finland
43. France
44. Gabon
45. Gambia
46. Georgia
47. Germany
48. Ghana
49. Gibraltar
50. Grenada
51. Guatemala
52. Guinea
53. Guinea-Bissau
54. Guyana
55. Haiti
56. Honduras
57. Iraq
58. Israel
59. Jamaica
60. Kosovo
61. Kyrgyzstan
62. Laos
63. Lebanon
64. Liberia
65. Libya
66. Liechtenstein
67. Macao
68. Madagascar
69. Malawi
70. Malaysia
71. Maldives
72. Mali
73. Mauritania
74. Mauritius
75. Mexico
76. Micronesia (Federated States of)
77. Moldova
78. Monaco
79. Mongolia
80. Montenegro
81. Montserrat
82. Mozambique
83. Myanmar
84. Namibia
85. Nauru
86. Nepal
87. New Zealand
88. Nicaragua
89. Niger
90. North Macedonia
91. Norway
92. Palau
93. Panama
94. Papua New Guinea
95. Paraguay
96. Portugal
97. Republic of the Congo
98. Rwanda
99. Saint Kitts and Nevis
100. Saint Lucia
101. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
102. Samoa
103. San Marino
104. Spain
105. Sweden
106. São Tomé and Príncipe
107. Senegal
108. Serbia
109. Seychelles
110. Sierra Leone
111. Singapore
112. Solomon Islands
113. Somalia
114. South Korea
115. Sri Lanka
116. Sudan
117. Suriname
118. Taiwan
119. Tajikistan
120. Tanzania
121. Thailand
122. Togo
123. Tonga
124. Trinidad and Tobago
125. Turkmenistan
126. Turks and Caicos Islands
127. Uganda
128. United States
129. Uruguay
130. Uzbekistan
131. Vanuatu
132. Vatican City
133. Venezuela
134. Yemen
135. Zambia
136. Zimbabwe